It all began last year when I was writing a series chronicling 30 years of my life, beginning at the age of 10.  When I got to the early 60’s I began to think of my childhood friend Kathy.  She and I had been thick as thieves, almost from the day she moved into the house at the end of the street.

Kathy had brothers just like me.  Both of hers were younger too.  It practically guaranteed we would be spending lots of time together.  And of course we did.

Kathy was the girl I wanted to be.  She was tall, I was short, she was blonde, I was brunette, she was popular, I was not..  Somehow being opposites made us even more attractive as friends.  Together we were the whole that alone we were not.

We managed to get into loads of trouble together, but hey, that is what best friends are for.  Sometimes we let Jacque hang with us.  The same Jacque who would later move to California and become a model, but at age 14, who could foresee the future?  It was the early 60’s, there were no reality shows to pit pretty adolescent against another adolescent to see who would be chosen as worthy of the title of model.  We had no clue of what she would become, to us she was just another pretty girl on the base.  She was just another cohort in our adventures.

Kathy, Jacque and me at 14. 

I was reminiscing about the time we girls decided it would be fun to go to school drunk.  The plan was each of us would skim some of our parents’ alcohol from their unlocked, unguarded cabinets..  My mother happened to be in the hospital for a few days, so not wanting to waste an opportunity for some unsupervised time, we would meet at my house before school armed with our mason jars of booze hidden in our book bags.

We had planned it all...except for Dawnella deciding to join us.  The best laid plans and all that.  She dropped by Jacque’s house that morning, to walk to the bus stop with her.  Jacque couldn’t discourage her at all, so she tagged along, a willing participant.

Since Kathy lived within sight of my house the plan was to come over once my father had driven his old 1952 black Ford to work.  “Bye daddy.”  I stood out front waving like I was going to leave for the bus as soon as he left.  I watched as his car headed down the street.  As I turned around I saw Kathy, Jacque and Dawnella coming down the street.  I put down my bookbag and waved to them the all-clear sign.  They were laughing and giggling but had increased their gait to almost a run.

We all spilled in my front door, and carefully withdrew our booty—three mason jars, each with a couple of inches of tea colored liquid.  I don’t remember who had the brilliant idea of pouring the three together, but we did.  It smelled revolting.  I think it was the combination of gin, vodka, scotch, rum and whiskey which swirled around and almost burned your eyes when you went to drink some.  First Kathy took hold of the valuable jar, bringing it up to her mouth before gagging.  Hm-m-m.  “Ugh, I can’t drink this, it’s...gross.”  She thrust it towards me.

I grabbed it.  I too put it up to my mouth efforting take a sip, and felt my stomach fip-flop at the mere smell.  “God, this stinks!”  I pinched my nose, closed my eyes and tilted the jar...the cool liquid barely touched my lips, but my tongue already had been assaulted, no doubt aided by excellent olfactory senses still not spoiled by smoking.  Nope, I couldn’t do it.  I passed it to Jacque and she immediately passed it to Dawnella. 

“You guys are such wusses.  I’ll drink it.”  She lifted the jar, and much to our amazement she chugged almost the entire jar of booze.  We three watched in shock and awe and maybe a touch of envy, shaking our heads, but nevertheless duly impressed. 

That done, we had to hurry if we wanted to catch the bus, so we washed out the jars, took them to the trash and sprinted down the street with gales of laughter buoying us.  That is until we got on the bus.  It was then it hit Dawnella....she was drunk as a sailor on leave.  We had our hands full now.

By the time we got to Wilson Jr. High we had to help her off of the bus.  “Shhhhhh.  Don’t say anything I admonished her.”  She was already slurring and it was all we three gals could do to get her onto her feet, get her bookbag and get her down the three steps of the bus.

“Now what?”  Kathy asked, just as confused as the rest of us about how to handle Dawnella. 

“Crap,” said Jacque, “we better get her to the restroom where nobody can see her.”

“Good plan.”  Kathy and I said in unison as we struggled to keep Dawnella from passing out.  This was not at all how we envisioned our plan.  We managed to get her into one of the girls’ bathroom without causing too much suspicion.  We shoved her into a stall, set her on the toilet and rifled through our bags, eager to find something to get into her stomach to help sober her up.  We knew enough to do that, absent any coffee...which none of us drank at 13 anyway.

We started shoving a baloney sandwich into her mouth when the bell sounded for first period to begin.  Dawnella wanted no part of it, she was laughing and shoving our well-meaning hands away.

“Dawnella, this is not funny anymore.  We’re all going to get in trouble, so eat this sandwich.  NOW.”  I said, growing impatient with the situation.

“We gotta go.”  Kathy said. 

“Yeah.”  Jacque said.  “Let’s leave her here and we’ll come back between periods and check on her.”

“Good idea.”  Kathy said and I nodded in agreement.  “Dawnella, listen—we have to go now, but you stay in here and keep the door closed to the stall, okay?  And don’t make any noise at all.  We’ll come back as soon as first period is done.  We promise.”

She nodded, though we weren’t sure if it was because she was passing out or she understood, but one thing we did know, we had to skiddadle.

I shoved my own peanut butter and jelly sandwich at her...”And eat this.”

As the three of us left the bathroom we heard her slurred plea, “Heyyyyy don’t weave me here...kaaayyy?”

“SH-H-H-H!”   We all parted ways in the hall, vowing to meet back here after first period ended.  I had Geography class with Mr. Burnham.  It was going to be a very long 45 minutes, even worse than the usual snorer of a class.  After about twenty minutes I could no longer sit still and I raised my hand.

“Yes Sheila?”  Mr. Burnham glared at me.

“May I please use the restroom?”  I just had to go check on her, I couldn't even concentrate at this point.

“Yes, but no dilly dallying.”

I took off as quickly as my little legs would move.  As I pushed open the door I ran smack dab into Kathy, obviously she couldn’t wait either.  “How is she doing?” 

“Well, she was sitting on the floor, NOT in the stall.”

“Oh God.  You got her back in?”

“Yeah...look I gotta go, see you here at the end of the period.”  She left, headed back to her English class.

“Ps-s-st Dawnella?”  I leaned into the closed stall door.

“Yeah, who is it?”  She giggled and hiccuped all at the same time.

“It’s me, Sheila.  You okay now?”

 “I feel sick.  I wanna go home."

“I know, but you have to stay in there until you are sober enough to walk.  Okay?”

“Oka-a-y.  I wub yo-o-u.”  Oh crap.  I had to get back to class.  How long was she going to stay drunk anyway?  

About five minutes before class ended the school loudspeaker came crackling on. “Good morning, this is your pricipal, Mr. Riggs.  Will the following students please report to my office as soon as possible:  Kathy P.........Jacque B......and...” I didn't have to hear my name, I knew it was coming as soon as I heard Jacque's.  My throat closed up, my stomach took a nosedive and the next thing I know the three of us were sitting in the waiting room of the Principal’s office.  Dawnella was in the nurse’s office, being cared for.  Someone had found her and reported it to the office.

All four of us were suspended for three days, despite Jacque, Kathy and I pleading that none of the three of us were drunk.  We were suspended for providing the alcohol.  We could not deny that.

Last summer, thanks to the miracle of Classmates, Jacque, Kathy and I found each other.  We three partners in crime planned our first reunion in 47 years.  Where else would we meet but Disneyland.  Here we are posed in our facsimile of the first photo last September.

Kathy, Jacque and I in 2008. 

 We never did find Dawnella, but rumor has it she owns a bar somewhere.